systems lunch

an informal get-together for graduate students at Berkeley who are interested in systems.

Overview

Once a week, we meet over lunch and listen to a fellow student present their research. It's a great way of getting talk feedback from a friendly audience of your peers, and also a great way of learning about what everyone else in the department is up to.

Even though it's called systems lunch, we've also heard talks from other areas (e.g. database, architecture, networks). Basically, if you think people would be interested, sign up to give a talk!

When and where

For the spring 2013 semester, we've scheduled 380 Soda from 12PM-1PM on Mondays.

ordering food

Even if you aren't ready to give a talk, you can help out by volunteering to organize food. It's really not hard, and it's an essential duty since we can't have syslunch without lunch.

The basics

Call the restaurant the week before to place the order.

If they're delivering, tell them to bring it to Soda Hall, at the corner of Hearst and Leroy.

Order food for approximately 35 people, with 15 of those being vegetarian.

Give them your cellphone number.

On the day of, meet them at the door and show them where the food is going. Often, they'll carry it into the room for you. Else, you can probably borrow a cart from the RAD Lab or Par Lab.

There are two choices of where to order from, depending on some linear combination of your food preference and level of effort.

Easy way: order from a known-good vendor

The following restaurants will send you an invoice if you mention "UC Berkeley". Tell them to use the RAD Lab account, and to put "systems lunch" on the invoice.

gregoire (sandwiches via lunchboxes)

oasis (middle eastern wraps)

cha am (thai)

company cater (they are middle men for an assortment of restaurants)

cafe panini (sandwiches via lunchboxes)

cancun (burritos)

poulet (sandwiches via lunchboxes + platters)

la mediterranee (mediterranean)

sandwich zone (sandwiches via lunch boxes)

stella nonna (sandwiches & salads via lunch boxes)

ajanta (indian)

market hall caterers (lunchboxes + pizza, wide assortment)

After that, it's actually easiest for everyone if you just forward the invoice to the current syslunch czar, who can do the paperwork for you. If you really want to do it yourself, the procedure is very similar to what's below.

Harder way: order elsewhere and do reimbursement

If you want to order from your favorite restaurant not on this list, you can charge it to your credit card and then go through the ERSO reimbursement process. It's basically just paperwork.

Tips

Try to keep it under $400. Ordering buffet rather than boxed is cheaper.

Make sure to get an itemized receipt, because we aren't allowed to buy alcohol.

If they don't deliver, you'll have to pick it up and bring it to the room. You can usually get help unloading your car at Soda though.

Paperwork

For "Type", mark "57004/57005 Business meeting hospitality".

For "Purpose", write something like "Systems lunch: Discussion on scalability of distributed shared memory architectures led by Charles Reiss".

For "Participants", write down 15 people who attended. You can also ask the syslunch czar for a list of typical attendees.

Sign the "Reimb Requestor" section.

Find Ion Stoica and get him to sign under "Official Host". Easiest is just to leave it on his desk with a sticky note.

Go on the ERSO intranet, select "Entertainment Payment" twice, fill out similar to the above.